Frielander’s series America by Car was taken travelling by hire car across most of America’s 50 states (Lee Friedlander: America By Car, n.d.). The images are all taken from inside the car and show different scenes of America outside the car.
From each scene, one sees a different element of American culture. What I especially like about the images is that, as a set, they combine to create a real sense of travel across America. No one scene is especially unique or different to the huge amounts of snaps that one might find on social media in these times, but as a set, they combine to tell a story of a journey. The inclusion of the frame of the car window serves to enhance this feeling further and is an interesting choice when many would have hung the camera out of the window to create an obstruction free shot. This effect of a combined set of , essentially unremarkable images reminds me of Stephen Shores American Surfaces which although very different to this set, has similar traits.
Some specific images that caught my eye and the reasons.
In Fig. 1 we see a railroad and some carriages. At first glance, the framing is not ideal, the rear most carriage, the main subject of the frame is clipped off the left hand edge of the scene. But, then we see that the railroad extends backwards in the side mirror that is also in shot. If one view the image including the reflection, then the image is complete. This very careful positioning is something that can be seen in a number of shots and belies the idea that Friedlander simply stopped and took a snap shot, I think there is much more careful framing decisions taking place.
In Fig.2, we see the billboard of “Hot Babes direct to you’ on the back of a truck. I think that Friedlander probably saw this as he was driving by but rather than stop and take the scene through the front window, he has actually positioned his car sideways to the truck so that the image can be shot with the same framing as all his other images. Obviously this makes the set more cohesive, something to bear in mind when I create my own sets.
In Fig. 3, this is again an unremarkable image of a sign ‘Bar’ hanging off a lamppost. I chose to include this image because it reminded me of another series of images produced by Friedlander, Letters From the People. It struck me the Friedlander is running his interests between different sets of images but managing to capture them in a way that is unique to the purpose of that particular set. This I find very interesting because as I study with the OCA, I sometimes find myself disappointed when a particular assignment has caught my attention more than others but I have to move on. Friedlander here is demonstrating that it is not necessarily the case that I need to abandon my interests to do something different.
Bibliography
Whitney.org. n.d. Lee Friedlander: America By Car. [online] Available at: <https://whitney.org/exhibitions/lee-friedlander> [Accessed 25 January 2021].
Images
Figure 1. Frielander, L., 2008. Mississippi. [image] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2011/sep/02/lee-friedlander-america-by-car-in-pictures> [Accessed 25 January 2021].
Figure 2. Frielander, L., 2007. Las Vegas, Nevada. [image] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2011/sep/02/lee-friedlander-america-by-car-in-pictures> [Accessed 25 January 2021].
Figure 3. Frielander, L., 2008. Montana. [image] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2011/sep/02/lee-friedlander-america-by-car-in-pictures> [Accessed 25 January 2021].